Bad cholesterol link to muddled thinking

GREATER fluctuations in “bad” cholesterol levels may be linked to muddled thinking in older people, the research suggests.

In a study of adults age 70 to 82, including some from Scotland, scientists found that greater variations in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol, are associated with lower cognitive performance.

For example, study participants with the highest LDL cholesterol variability took 2.7 seconds longer on average to finish a cognitive test to name the colour words written in different ink – for example, the word blue written in red ink.

Study lead author Doctor Roelof Smit, of Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, said: “While this might seem like a small effect, it is significant at a population level.”

The link between variability and declining cognitive function was found regardless of average bad cholesterol levels or use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. And greater fluctuations in bad cholesterol were associated with lower brain blood flow and greater white matter hyperintensity load – which has been linked to endothelial dysfunction.

Dr Smit said the results show LDL cholesterol variability may be important to neurocognitive function.

He said: “Our findings suggest for the first time that it’s not just the average level of your LDL-cholesterol that is related to brain health, but also how much your levels vary from one measurement to another.”

Dr Smit said measurements fluctuate because of diet, exercise, frequency of cholesterol-lowering statins and other factors.

But study senior author Professor Wouter Jukema said the fluctuations might also reflect an increasingly impaired homeostasis; for example, due to age or underlying disease.

The research involved 4,428 pensioners from Scotland, Ireland and Holland.